mike: Liked it, fun gameplay! Got stuck a lot on decorations though.
pief: Very cool setting, liked it!
skor: Strong e4 vibes, I loved it!
9cc7dbee0c4133830f8045206457dc21fd0dd67524f956e9cdc4eb6f22adf2d9
overall_rating
4.034523809523809
30
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@Greenwood Were you talking to me? Just in case you did, I think you didn’t understand what I was trying to say… or it’s a plain missunderstanding ; )
The rating is based on how I experienced the maps. Period. I felt the majority of these maps were boring and ugly.
!!! >>>I feel sorry for the few good ones, but the rating was based on the overall experience of the pack.
According to my memory many of the maps in this pack would have gotten a 2* rating if they were released in '96.
On the other hand there are maps which originally were released around that area that still deserve a solid 5*.
Based on that comparison I think this pack was a disappointment.
Especially when considering the gap in available hardware and editing tools between then and now!
…133mhz pentiums with 8mb of ram on a 15" monitor and editors like Trenchbroom still decades in the future. It was A LOT harder to create anything decent back then.
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I do concur with NoNameUser. While I understand the point of Map Jams, I do prefer an episodic jam, where there is a sense of continuation, otherwise, just release separate levels. Going back to the start map again, remembering which ones you played, which you didn’t, is a PITA for me. I’m not saying episide vs jam as a matter of right vs wrong, its just a personal preference. I skip over mapjams usually for this reason.
For this pack, the levels were hit and miss. Some where pretty damn good, others were only OK, perhaps needing a few more textures or detail.
The Episode 4 levels were IMO the strongest, however for many, I didn’t feel they were “Vanilla” maps. Not because they weren’t within the limits, but after 25 years, levels are just stylistically different now compared to back then.
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I didn’t enjoy this very much. I feel bad criticizing it when a) it’s clear a lot of work went into the project and b) most of the contributors have released great maps in the past, whether as part of other mapjams or as standalone releases.
For me the problem is that, as Borax Man writes above, these maps aren’t really vanilla. There’s an art critic named Hugh Kenner who wrote that “The style of your own time is always invisible,” and most of the maps reflect that: they’re modern Quake maps done at modern scale with modern gameplay, old-school textures, and maybe a few anachronistic trifles. Many of the authors, in trying to create a vanilla map, just made the maps they typically make, but cruder.
The entries from Boxfigs, Ilike80srock, and Spud are the ones that best reflect the spirit of vanilla Quake, IMO. They’re not especially id-like, but each one could have been an early custom map. That’s not to say those are the best maps (although spud’s is pretty interesting), or to diss the other authors, just my opinion on their style.
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I’m amazed every time I play one of these Jams at how much fun they are. Sure, some are better than others, but they are all great in their own right.
I just have to say to all the mappers, thank you once again for sharing!
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Even id1 maps by different authors look and play different, of course maps by other authors decades later will have their own style.
As far as the more important gameplay criticisms, the maps mostly play smoothly. Good for people getting into playing custom maps because the quality is pretty high on average and there are no giant marathon dungeons to get lost in. I really liked “Erased Ancestors” (q25ljcr2), cool use of the Egypt textures and some tricky fights.
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